At St. Petersburg, Florida, Bobby Abreu homered and drove in a season-high five runs, helping Wang Chien-ming overcome a shaky first inning to win his seventh straight decision for the Yankees with a 6-4 victory over the Devil Rays on Saturday night.
Abreu hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning, Hideki Matsui also went deep for the Yankees against rookie Andy Sonnanstine (1-4) and New York climbed back to .500 for the second time in three nights.
Wang (10-4) allowed seven hits and three runs in six innings to improve to 9-1 with two no-decisions over his last 12 starts.
Mariano Rivera came on to get the final three outs to move past John Franco for third place on the career saves list with 425.
Red Sox 9, Blue Jays 4
David Ortiz hit his first home run at Fenway Park since April, and Eric Hinske and Jason Varitek also homered for the Boston Red Sox to help Daisuke Matsuzaka overcome a rough outing against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Matsuzaka (11-6) was charged with four runs on nine hits and two walks, striking out two in six innings for his fourth win in five decisions. The Japanese right-hander has given up 10 runs in his last two starts after allowing a total of six runs in his six starts before that.
Troy Glaus and Aaron Hill each had a single, a double and a homer off Matsuzaka, driving in three runs in the sixth to help the Blue Jays erase a 4-1 deficit. But Varitek hit a two-run homer with nobody out in the bottom half to chase Dustin McGowan (5-5) and start a five-run rally that broke the game open.
Twins 4, Athletics 3
At Minneapolis, Carlos Silva allowed two hits pitching into the seventh inning, Michael Cuddyer drove in a pair of runs and the Twins held on to beat the Athletics.
Luis Castillo, Joe Mauer and Jason Tyner each had two hits for the Twins, who have won the first three games of the series and entered the night trailing Detroit by seven games in the AL Central.
Joe Blanton (8-6) allowed 10 hits in 7 2-3 innings and took the loss for the Athletics. They have lost a season-high six straight and fell a season-worst three games under .500.
In other American League action of Saturday it was:
* Royals 6, Indians 5
* Orioles 7, White Sox 6, 10 innings
* Angels 9, Rangers 5
* Mariners 6, Tigers 4
Derek Lowe held Barry Bonds hitless in three more at-bats and stuck on 751 home runs, and the Los Angeles Dodgers won their 10th straight game in San Francisco on Rafael Furcal's sacrifice fly in the 12th inning of an 8-7 victory on Saturday.
Bonds is 0-for-11 in his career against Lowe. He also struck out in the seventh inning against Joe Beimel and grounded out in the 11th against Mark Hendrickson in his first 0-for-5 game since Sept. 26, 2005. Bonds is hitless in his last 13 at-bats and has not homered since July 3 at Cincinnati, remaining four shy of tying Hank Aaron's record of 755.
Bonds did walk to lead off the ninth against All-Star closer Takashi Saito and scored the tying run on Pedro Feliz's two-out RBI single.
But the Dodgers rallied with a leadoff double by James Loney in the 12th off Pat Misch (0-1). Loney went to third on Wilson Betemit's single, and after Misch intentionally loaded the bases, Furcal hit a fly ball and Loney beat Fred Lewis' throw home to score the go-ahead run.
Hendrickson (4-4) pitched two scoreless innings for the win. Rudy Seanez worked the 12th for his first save since June 23, 2001, for San Diego.
Mets 2, Reds 1
At New York, Tom Glavine earned his 298th win and Lastings Milledge's tiebreaking single with two outs in the eighth inning sent the Mets over the Reds.
Glavine (8-6) allowed only two hits in eight innings. He struck out five and walked none. The two-time Cy Young Award winner is closing in on becoming the 22nd major league pitcher to win 300 games.
Shawn Green hit an RBI single and scored the go-ahead run for the Mets, who won for the fourth time in 11 games this month.
In other National League action on Saturday it was
* Cubs 9, Astros 3
* Phillies 10, Cardinals 4
* Braves 5, Pirates 4
* Marlins 5, Nationals 2
* Brewers 2, Rockies 1, 10 innings
* Diamondbacks 5, Padres 4
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but